Eating Dark Chocolate and Olive Oil May Improve Cardiovascular Risk

The most prescribed drug around the world are statins used for lowering cholesterol and allegedly decreasing cardio vascular disease. The most common of these are Lipitor and Zocor. While reducing cholesterol is generally accepted as a good thing, there are those who oppose their massive use before trying diet and lifestyle modification first.

In the past decade a great deal of effort and money has been expended by drug companies educating the public about the perils of cholesterol and how it affects cardio-vascular problems and risk. Those who have been diagnosed with high cholesterol are almost always prescribed a stain drug to decrease levels. However, what is not taught, is that statin drugs have some very bad side effects such as: liver damage, asthma, muscle pain and weakness and birth defects during pregnancy.

There are two types of cholesterol, good – HDL (high density) and bad – LDL (low density).

Alternative / holistic remedies for many health problems including bad cholesterol have a very high success rate, and should be tried before going into a life of statin prescriptions. Lifestyle changes such as exercise, decreasing fat and carbohydrates (junk food) and increasing fruits and vegetables into the diet will usually make a huge difference in cholesterol levels.

According to a recent study by the University of Pisa in Italy, in a paper presented to the European Society of Cardiology in August, a combination of dark chocolate and virgin olive oil can turn down your bad cholesterol levels naturally. Doing so will improve your overall risk for cardio vascular disease

Dr. Rossella Di Stefano, a cardiologist at the University of Pisa, and the lead author of the study says that fruits and vegetables act protectively by means of polyphenols found in apples, cocoa, and olive oil. They discovered that the Panaia red apple from Italy contained very high levels of anti-oxidants (as do most apples) and polyphenols. The research team began by looking at olive oil with dark chocolate as compared with Panaia apples afforded the best solution to atherosclerosis (a build up of plaque in arteries). Arterial plaque can build up and block blood flow causing a heart attack. Their study involved 26 participants (12 female and 14 male) with three or more cardio vascular (CV) risks including: family history of CV disease, smoking, high blood pressure, and/or high cholesterol. The volunteers received two weeks of chocolate and either olive oil or apples.

Urine and blood samples were obtained pre- and post-treatment and were tested for endogenous metabolites using proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The urine circulating EPC levels were measured by flow cytometry. Follow up studies of smoking, sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, and BMI were performed on all volunteers.

In addition, any changes in atherosclerosis or metabolism was measured by blood levels of Hippurate and carnitine as well as circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) which are essential components of vascular repair and endothelial health.

By the end of the nearly month-long study, the team measured much higher EPC levels with the dark chocolate and olive oil combination as compared with the apples. HDL levels were significantly increased, and blood pressures were lowered.